GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE

Pro-poor, low carbon development

1 November 2012

International policy has so far failed to facilitate the
transfer of climate technology to all but a few developing countries. A new
research project aims to help improve low carbon energy access and development
benefits in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which account for only around
0.2 per cent of certified emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM).

Solar Home Systems in Kenya

Using the case study of Solar Home Systems (SHSs) in Kenya,
the Pro-poor,
low carbon development project aims to provide policy insights to inform
the design of centre-based approaches for facilitating the transfer and uptake
of low carbon energy and other climate technologies in LDCs. These approaches
include the various emerging Climate Innovation
Centres initiatives and the proposed Climate Technology Centre and Network under the UNFCCC.

Recognising the relative success of the adoption of SHSs in
Kenya, this project seeks to build a rich understanding of how this was
achieved. It will develop a detailed picture of the full spectrum of actors
(from technology importers, to retailers and end users), together with the
institutional frameworks and events that assisted the successful uptake of this
technology.

The aim is to
identify the key actors, events and policies that contributed to building capacity
around SHSs in Kenya and to use these insights to make suggestions as to how
climate innovation centres and related policy initiatives might replicate these
actions in relation to other technologies and other country contexts.

Innovation capacities

Decades of research at the University of Sussex (supported
by analysis elsewhere) into technology transfer, and more recently climate
technology transfer, suggest the failure of international policy to facilitate
technology transfer is due to a lack of existing innovation capacities in LDCs.
By 'innovation capacities' we mean the technological capacities to adopt,
operate, adapt and innovate around new technologies within specific local contexts.

These capacities evolve through the accumulation of both
tacit and codified knowledge which can be fostered by deliberate, strategic
actions by both developing country firms and governments, carefully aligned
with the needs and practices of local end users. If carefully designed and
implemented, the emerging centre-based policy approach to facilitating climate
technology transfer and uptake has greater potential to build new innovation
capacities in LDCs than traditional 'hardware financing' based policy
approaches like the CDM. This is part of the reason why the majority of CDM
finance flows to large developing countries – these are the countries with
existing innovation capacities.

As well as informing policy, the project also aims to
contribute to academic thinking in the fields of innovation studies and
socio-technical transitions and is based on broader critical analysis within
the framework of the STEPS Centre’s
Pathways Approach.